You may need potassium even if you don't have high blood pressure
I've talked a lot
about potassium in the past. It's a powerful nutrient for lowering your
high blood pressure. With that, it can help lower your risk for heart attack and
stroke. However, not everyone has high blood pressure. But they still may need
to take potassium.
Researchers recently
found something very interesting about postmenopausal women. These
researchers looked at 90,137 postmenopausal women, ranging in ages from 50 to
79, over an average of 11 years. That's a big study.
During the study,
they evaluated the women's potassium intake and recorded instances of stroke or
death. None of the women had experienced a stroke prior to the study, and they
consumed an average of 2,611 mg per day of potassium from food, rather than
from supplements.
They found that those
who did not have high blood pressure but ate high-potassium foods were less
likely to have strokes and die than women on a low-potassium diet.
They also found that
the mineral all by itself has benefits for those with high blood pressure.
But a bigger impact was on their risk of hypertension-related death from a
heart attack. It significantly reduced their risk.